Conversions, conversions, conversions. That’s the name of the game with pretty much all content marketing. And, just as video marketing is no exception, neither is Facebook video marketing.
We’ve discussed at length in previous posts the 10 Elements of High Performing Facebook Video Ads, we’ve had a look at The Good, The Bad and The Indifferent ads that are currently in circulation on Facebook, and we’ve also considered 5 Facebook Targeting Hacks To Find Your Audience. Indeed, we’ve already drilled down quite far into the various elements that make for a successful Facebook video ad campaign. However, as with nearly all online marketing, the pit is bottomless, and there is always further that we can go.
For one thing, what constitutes a ‘high performing’ Facebook video ad will all depend on the desired outcome of the campaign. For instance, if your ad is intended to drive awareness of your brand, then simply garnering a pleasingly high amount of views and shares would generally be considered to equal success. However, if it’s sales that you’re after, then views and shares are mere vanity metrics if they do nothing to improve your conversion rates.
Indeed, as the wilier amongst you will have already inferred from the title of this blog, it is this latter scenario that this post has been put together to address.
Increasing Conversions With Facebook Ads
Videos are great. They’re great and generating user interest, great at connecting your audience with your brand, great at building up brand awareness and mounting an increasing volume of likes, shares and comments.
All this is great, great stuff.
However, there’s one thing missing in all this greatness – conversions.
Without your Facebook video ad campaign generating any meaningful leads, conversions and/or sales, then your ROI (return on investment) will be dangerously lacking. In fact, if your Facebook video ads cannot be translated into increased sales, then they are losing, not making, you money – and you don’t need to have gone to the School of Economics to understand that losing money is bad for business.
So, what can be done to make sure that your Facebook video promos are increasing conversions?
Well, as ever, the devil is in the detail. It’s not so much about making a certain type of video, per se, that will guarantee a spike in revenue, but rather a focus on driving sales (as opposed to likes or shares) as you go about optimising your content for conversions.
Here’s our top 3 tips to help you do just that.
1. Target
Yes. You may be the best Facebook video ad creator in the world, the Quentin Tarantino of social media advertising – but, your product or service (much like a Tarantino flick, to be fair) will always have a very specific demographic that it is tailored for. My point is that even my mum likes QT movies, and will quite happily watch them if they’re on the telly – but she’s not going to rush down to the theatre this Christmas to see The Hateful Eight when it comes out.
Similarly, she would probably have a good old laugh at some of the brilliantly witty Facebook ads that pop up in her timeline when browsing – but that’s not gonna make her sign up to Dollar Shave Club.
No, targeting is extremely important for your Facebook ads when it comes to increasing conversions. If you’re selling men’s razors, then it will be the male population that are the most likely to spend money with you, regardless of how entertaining your video may be.
If you’ve already introduced your brand or your product with a video, then you can make excellent use of Facebook’s Custom Audience feature, which will enable you target your follow-up sales video at those who have already engaged with your video content. This indeed is a very nifty little use of the tools available, as you can gradually guide your fans down the sales funnel with a series of videos that will inspire them to take action.
2. An Integrated CTA That’s As Clear As A Bell
There’s no room for muddled messages when it comes to your CTA (call-to-action). If your Facebook video is good enough to keep viewers watching to the end, then you need to present to them an extremely clear and valuable CTA, which, quite simply, tells them what to do next.
This might be ‘Visit Our Store’, or ‘Get Free Shipping’, or perhaps ‘Sign Up NOW For Free’ – whatever you want your audience to do as a result of watching your Facebook video ad, you need to make it possible for them to do it with a bright, clear CTA button that takes them directly to your website or landing page where they can do it with as few clicks as possible. Check out this Shakr made video by World Of Harry who ran this video as a Facebook video ad targeted to their target demographics. The CTA is super clear; “Order your wizard wand now!”.
3. Split Test – And Split Test Again
When you first get started making videos, often the excitement of seeing your finished work out there and being shared amongst the web waves can be so enthralling that you can forget about its true purpose – to score conversions.
So, remind yourself the first time you hit publish on your brand new Facebook video ad, that it’s not applause that you’re after, it’s sales.
Now, there is no magic formula, unfortunately, that is going to guarantee your first effort to deliver all the conversions you could possibly dream of. So instead, you should make at least two, but ideally three or four versions of your video to share amongst segmented parts of your audience. You don’t have to make a completely different video from scratch for each test, it should be noted – it will be just as beneficial to chop and change the title of the video, alter the CTA, as well as making more drastic alterations to the voiceover or script.
But, either way, run the variations as tests to see which one generates the most conversions. Once you’ve got the figures you will know which video to roll out to wider audience.
Got any more great tips on increasing conversions with Facebook video ads? Please share your thoughts with our community by using the comments section below.